Lessons Learned from the Evolution of Project Portfolio Management at Blue KCKC Chapter PMI – PDD Days 2016

Jake Brittingham, Program Manager

Understanding of the need for proper timing in the selection of PPM tools. Awareness of the need for effective change management / leadership in implementing portfolio management. Understanding the need to identify metrics that are meaningful to executives rather than project managers. How to avoid the trap of collecting data that is not really needed. Understanding the maturation of an EPMO becoming a strategic partner versus a tactical delivery arm.

Goals of this Presentation

How many of you walked into a new job and thought…. • ‘I’m going to make a huge difference on day one.’• ‘Nothing is working here, we need to make wholesale changes.’• ‘I will implement my tool kit and that will move the needle forward.’

Sometimes as leaders we forget about the evolution of change. We implement change before properly assessing our environment. Many times this will cause confusion and slow adoption.

What is the appropriate way to introduce change?

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Leadership Drivers: Where is time being spent on projects? How are we using resources to support delivery? How well are we delivering projects? Are we effectively managing the work? How can we improve executive level reporting?

1.0 EPMO 1.0 (Crawl)• Timesheet tracking• Resource Requirement & Allocation measurements• PM Scorecards & Checklists• Heavy process monitoring• Basic reporting

PMO 1.0 Problem Statement

Reporting from the tool was generic.

PMs and Governance Team were not using critical thinking skills. Leadership didn’t believe the PPM Tool was able to produce portfolio level reporting. Disbelief that our current PPM tool will meet our future needs.

• Disparate data in 2-3 places.• Twice as much work on the team to keep data in sync.• The tool of choice could not produce the desired results.

Leadership Directives: How can we encourage critical thinking? How do we enhance our project/portfolio financial discipline? What are the steps needed to align our work to enterprise priorities? How do we build our business domain knowledge? What information provides the most value to our executives?

2.0• Create Change Agents• Improve Transparency• Show EPMO’s value• Executive level reporting• Prove value of current PPM tool

EPMO 2.0 (Walk)

Financial Management ReportingProblem Statement:Lack of consistency across project financial tools and measurements and complicated project/portfolio financial reporting.Sample of Solution:

Contractor ManagementProblem Statement:Manual processes were not visible, which caused onboarding delays and financial impacts.Samples of Solution:

Executive ReportingProblem Statement:Style of reporting was basic and content was disconnected.Samples of Solution:

Leadership Drivers: How do we continue to evolve our critical thinking skills? What is needed before we can provide quick and fact based estimates? Is it time to create a financial accountability model? How do we align work to our corporate strategies? Is the organization working on the correct projects?

3.0 • Robust Program Management• Analogous Estimation• Financial Reporting 2.0• Linking Strategy to Execution• Capacity Planning 2.0• Demand Management 2.0

EPMO 3.0 (Run)

When will resource supply be less than business demand?

Analogous EstimationProblem Statement:Need a quicker means to fact based estimates.

72%

20%

3% 5%

2015 Hours Reported by Project Size

LargeMediumSmallX - Large

010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,000

2016 BA 2015InternalBA2016 Dev 2015InternalDev

2016 QA 2015InternalQA2016Other 2015InternalOther

100%73%

100%

51%100%

70%

100%

63%

Total H

ours

Resource Type

2016 BA 2015Internal BA 2016 Dev 2015Internal Dev 2016 QA 2015Internal QA 2016 Other 2015InternalOtherExternal Hours 0 9,369 0 19,582 0 8,886 0 15,941Internal Hours 49,491 25,969 55,677 20,301 41,242 20,566 59,801 26,786

2015 vs 2016 Resource Comparison

Internal Hours External Hours

Samples of Solution:

Problem Statement: Organization lacked visibility into who, what, when and where the project/portfolio money was being spent.

Showback Reporting

Sample of Solution:

Problem Statement: Disconnected and fragmented work was not grouped or aligned to corporate strategies.

Linking Strategy into Execution

Sample of Solution:Portfolio Program Manager Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3

Initiative 1-1 Initiative 1-2 Initiative 2-1 Initiative 2-2 Initiative 2-3 Initiative 3-1Portfolio XBusiness Sponsor APortfolio Manager B

Prog. Mgr. A

Prog. Mgr. B

Portfolio YBusiness Sponsor ZPortfolioManager C

Prog. Mgr. C

Prog. Mgr. DProg. Mgr E

Capacity Management 2.0Problem Statement: Demand is greater than the organization has capacity for and we lack transparency into our resource conflicts. Once the conflicts are visible then Leadership can better prioritize the work.Sample of Solution:

Benefits RealizationProblem Statement: Leadership wants us to validate that we are delivering projects based on the greatest cost/benefits to the company.Sample of Solution:

Collecting data can be difficult and expensive, EPMOs need to know their audience and work smarter in order to provide meaningful information.

In Closing – What We Have Learned…PPM tools are a means, not an end.

Rolling out PPM requires effective change management.

Executives need metrics to support their decisions.